The figure highlights Australia's problem of an extremely high suicide rate among the indigenous populace, with up to 10 per cent of all indigenous deaths caused by people taking their own lives. Among the positive trends noted in the report was an improvement in mortality rates and an increase in the number of children finishing school. But family and community violence rates had stagnated between 2002 and 2014-2015, according to the report, affecting around one in five of the adult indigenous population. 'Shocking and shameful' The findings contained in the report caused politicians and activists to voice deep concern. An indigenous leader from Western Australia, Senator Patrick Dodson, called the high rates of suicide "shocking and shameful."